summer harvest

garden

Here is my lovely vegetable garden but in all of this I only have two tomatoes. There are no squash blossoms or anything, what am I doing wrong? Is there not enough sun, should we cut down another tree or just thin them out to let in more sun?

Baja Style Tempeh Tacos

I heard these tacos were really good and had to try them. I borrowed my friend Sara's copy of Veganomicon and made them the other night. These tacos were really good and I will definitely make them again. Jason liked them too and said they almost tasted like the fish burrito he buys at the taco stand by his work.

Mother's Day

Today we woke up and walked to The Mission for breakfast. It was 11:30 by the time we got there and we still had to wait 30 min, but it was not bad. The food was good, like always, and the kids were a little bit hyper until the food came. Porter did not want his picture taken but I got one photo anyway.
On the walk home Liesl fell asleep in the stroller and then Porter fell asleep on the couch when we got home. The house was in bad shape so I started cleaning our room first and I was working on the closet when I found out that Jason has a serious shoe problem. On our walk today he mentioned that he needed a new pair because the pair he was wearing was starting to come apart. He did throw away three of them, so that was good. The house cleaning went well, but I still feel like there is so much to do. Whenever I go to my friend Luci's house it is perfect, like a model home perfect. I really want to try and get my house to the point where I can invite anyone over without worrying what condition the house is in.
My little sister came over today to drop off Liesl's flower girl dress and it was huge. The sales lady measured Liesl and suggested we order a size 2T, so we did. Her pitch was that it is better to buy big so you can alter it, but if it is too small there is nothing you can do. I held the dress up to Porter and it would fit him just fine. On Liesl it is so big, but I am going to do my best to try and make it fit. I have altered a few of my own shirts lately so I am confident I can get it to look nice.
I did not feel like making dinner tonight so we picked up some yummy Indian food. I love Indian food and Jason even said it was a good choice!
This was the first Mother's Day that I can remember not spending with my Mom. My parent's have been in Europe since the end of April and they get back on Wednesday and it will be good to see them.

vegan potluck

We went to a vegan potluck today and this is my plate of yummy food. I ate way too much but it was all really good I just could not help myself.

Thursday

Tonight when Jason came home form work he asked me what was for dinner as I was chopping up veggies. I told him that I really didn't know and he said "another Natalie special". It totally made me laugh because half of the meals I prepare are just thrown together and Jason never complains. Tonight's meal actually got a "good" rating and it was tasty. I roasted some potatoes, bell pepper, apple and sweet potato with some coconut oil and curry powder. I did not want to eat rice again so I decided to make some sopes. I have never had them before but I had some masa so I decided to try and make them. They were actually really good topped with my veggie mixture and some Kosherie sauce I had leftover from last week.


The dress I made for Liesl for the May Day party tomorrow did not turn out quite like I had expected but I like it.

bread

I have made this bread four times now and it has all turned out well. I did have one problem on my second batch I used a different brand of whole wheat flour and it was a little dry. Now I am just careful and make sure that I don't add too much flour and it has worked out great. Some friends asked if it was good sandwich bread and if it sliced well and I give it a thumbs up to both.

Ker Little India

Today after a quick stop at the park for playgroup we met some friends for lunch at at the Ker Little India a market and buffet. The food was all vegetarian but I don't know how much of it was vegan. I stayed away from the items that obviously had dairy in them but did not bother to ask about the other items. It was all so good and the kids had a nice time. After lunch we went to the market but I without a recipe I had no idea what to buy and nothing was organic and there was a lot of highly processed food. I did buy some stainless steel plates, bowls and a water pitcher to use when we eat outside. I just finished reading In Defense of Food and Michael Pollen says to not buy something if it has more than 5 ingredients. I think I can do this but I am having a problem with the milk I buy. There are a lot of ingredients in in rice, soy or almond milk so I need to start making my own. My friend Lorien makes her own milk with raw peanuts and I would like to try it out. The next time I am at Whole Foods I am going to buy some and make my own.

bread

I made some bread using this recipe from the new homemaker and it turned out great! I was not going to knead the bread by hand so I used the bread maker for that part but cooked them in the oven. It took some time but we went to the park during the first rise and finished when we got home. The bread is so good and easy I want to start making it instead of buying it from the grocery store.
The first rise

In the oven after the second rise.

I had a few slices with strawberry jam and it reminded me of when my grandma used to bring us fresh bread with homemade jam.

Sunday

Today we went to Morley Field for a Vegan potluck with some friends. All the food was amazingly delicious and we had a great time. The kids fell asleep on the couch when we got home and while they slept I updated my Etsy account. My friend Julia lent us her bike trailer so we hooked it up to my bike when the kids woke up. I took them for a ride around the neighborhood and they loved it. It was easy to pull when the road was flat but going up a hill was hard. I am going to try and ride over to 28th Street park sometime this week.
This evening I decided to make some Tamari Roasted Chickpeas and started removing the skin from the chickpeas I made earlier in the day. I was just going to do some of them but I ended up doing all of them because my sister told me that is what she read you are supposed to do. It took me a while but it was kind of fun!